Vignettes
by Meilin Li
Summary: A series of vignettes about Li Mei Ling. Each vignette has nothing to do with the other unless specified.
1. Vignette 1

**AN: **I've been feeling a bit more creative lately. This will be a series of vignettes. I'm just playing around with ideas in my head. Haven't uploaded anything in so long.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own them.

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Who am I? Lately I haven't been able to figure it out. I've given myself lots of time, putting it off day by day, blaming it on school, blaming it on the food I eat, blaming it on being sick last week, I even try to blame it on not getting enough sleep.

Daily I wake up, eat breakfast with Wei and Xiao Lang, go to school, come home, do my homework, go to sleep, and then the cycle repeats. I have even given up on tagging along to the magical twosome's card capturing parties every night. I can't seem to shake this feeling of uselessness. I haven't felt this way in a long time.

Before Xiao Lang, no I should say before I was his fiancée, I was that. Useless. I don't think my father ever found me of any use, of course, I wasn't a boy. Sometimes I hated being born into the Li Family. What good is a name if you aren't even wanted? Before I was born, they thought I was a boy. My father and my mother, they even raised me like one. When I was old enough to walk they forced me into martial arts, they encouraged me to play outside, and when I fell from climbing trees, they didn't fawn over me like Xiao Lang's parents did his sisters. They told me it was natural. In a way, I want to thank them for not raising me to be a prissy princess. But no one likes a loud mouth brat. So I've been told many times to my face.

I am loud. I am defiant. I am confident. I am Mei Ling. Yet I've never been able to relate. I couldn't relate to anyone.

I found relating difficult.

_Xiao Lang walked into class, silent and demanding. The giggling from the cliques of girls around the room caught my attention as Xiao Lang's eyes swept the room for two empty seats. The room held it's breath as he chose and swiftly sat down. I responded to the glares directed toward me with a wavering smile as I sat down next to him. It was tiring._

I was awkward.

"_Hey! I haven't seen you in a while, Lu Qiao said she hadn't talked to you all summer!"_

"_Oh hey Mei Ling! Yeah I haven't been able to catch up with her yet."_

"_Hehe, well I'm sure you'll catch up with her soon. She came to school today I think..." I smiled, "Cause you know first day of school and all."_

_She blinked at me unsure of how to respond. "Oh..." _

_The class began to file into the class room. And that... was the end of that._

I always screwed up.

_He climbed the tree, higher and higher, reaching the top._

"_Xiao Lang!" He didn't want to come down. _

_I stood beneath the tree, arms crossed and angry. "If you don't come down now I'm telling," I stomped my feet beneath him. _

"_Fine! I'm coming up!" I called, beginning to climb. I wanted to see the world from the top too._

_He looked alarmed, "No! Stay there I'll come down!" Of course, he didn't want to get in trouble if I fell. _

"_I won't fall Ah Lang! Shee-" Just as I said that my foot slipped, my shoe flew, and fell to the ground with a soft thud. I screamed._

"_Mei Ling!" he scrambled to me, reaching out his hand, but I couldn't reach._

_I slipped some, feeling the bark splinter into my fingers. I screamed again, this time in pain. He lunged forward and grabbed onto my arm. _

_But it was too late, we landed on the ground and I heard a sickening crack. I waited for the pain to come but it didn't, when I finally opened my eyes I found Xiao Lang writhing in pain cradling his left arm. _

I relied on others too much.

_I wailed into Tomoyo's lap as she patted my back. Why did things hurt so much? _

"_Why couldn't it be me?" I cried, sobbing hard, the hot tears seemed never ending._

_She responded by smoothing my hair. _

_The tears made me choke,"I'm the one that loves him the most!!"_

Was I really just someone useless?

Because this loud, defiant, and confident Mei Ling is lost.

Wasn't there anyone out there that could give me an answer?


	2. Vignette 2

**AN:** Vignette number 2!

fallenmad - haha! thanks, it has been a few years. :) and wow you remember me?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own them.

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I vaguely remember a voice. "Isn't it better?" A soft, serious, stern voice.

It was a voice from a dream.

"Isn't it better to _not _know where you're headed in life?"

A voice that was playing tricks on me. It had to be.

"What?"

"Isn't it better to be lost," it paused, contemplating. "So that when you find your way, it means _that_ much more?"

I blinked at the logic. "Uhm.."

It pointed at the figures from the town. We were floating now. People shopping. Kids playing. Families hugging. "You think they appreciate what they've been given?"

I shrugged. Perhaps.

It pointed at Sakura by the Penguin Park surrounded by Cerberus, Tomoyo, and Xiao Lang. "You think magic means as much to her as it would to you?"

"STOP!" I shrieked. "Don't say that about Sakura! She's not like me!" _She's better_, I wanted to say.

"You're right she's not like you. She has magic that could've been yours."

I shook my head. "No!" Her magic couldn't have been mine. She was just lucky to be born special.

"You're a descendant of Clow too. You had as much potential for magic as her."

My mouth snapped closed and my eyes turned away from Sakura's image. I was jealous. Extremely jealous.

"It doesn't matter, you can't change destiny. The cards _chose _her."

"You're strong." It commented, a bit surprised. "Do you _want _magic?"

What? It was now my turn to be surprised. "You can give me magic?"

"I can _help_," it corrected.

"How?" I demanded.

"You are a vessel for magic, thanks to Clow's bloodline." I could hear the humor in it's voice. "Do you know that Touya gave his magic to Yue?"

I frowned at where this was going.

"Yue now has Touya's magic, and Touya, still a vessel, is magic-less." It brought a finger up to it's lips. "But he still has potential," it finished.

"So... you can give me magic?" I repeated again, understanding a bit better.

"I can help you..." it paused trying to find the right word, "_collect magic_."

I really didn't like the suggestion. Didn't it imply _stealing _magic? "Collect magic? How?" It slipped out before I could stop myself. What was wrong with me?

It was amused at my urgent question.

"I have this," it held up a bracelet. A thin silver bracelet without charms.

I reached out for it, curious. "What does it do?"

"It will help you unlock magic," the voice came easily in a calm tone.

When it was put around my wrist, I felt a shiver run down my spine. What am I doing? I shook my head again to get a hold of myself.

"Didn't Touya give Yue his magic freely?"

It waved it off as if it didn't matter, "What difference does it make?"

But wasn't that tantamount to _stealing _magic? That stealing is wrong. Right?

I stopped and let the the idea mull around in my head. _Collecting magic_.


End file.
